GAZA, (The Palestine Foundation Pakistan)
The Hamas Movement has mourned the martyrdom of Palestinian prisoner Mohammad Hussein Ghawadra, aged 65, from the city of Jenin, who passed away on Sunday in Israeli prisons.
In an official press statement, Hamas said that the martyrdom of Ghawadra constitutes a new crime added to the Israeli occupation’s long record of abuses against Palestinian prisoners. The Movement said that this crime occurred in the context of deliberate medical negligence, torture, and brutal treatment practiced by the Israeli prison authorities as part of a systematic policy aimed at breaking the prisoners’ will and resilience.
Hamas affirmed that it holds the Israeli occupation fully responsible for Ghawadra’s death and warned of the grave dangers posed by the continuation of such criminal policies, which, it stressed, will not succeed in weakening the determination of the prisoners or the steadfastness of the Palestinian people.
The Movement called on the masses of the Palestinian people to intensify efforts to defend the heroic prisoners, continue supporting them, and stand by their side until their full freedom is achieved.
Hamas also urged international and human rights organizations to assume their moral and legal responsibilities regarding the continuous violations against prisoners and to work on holding Israeli leaders accountable for their crimes and stopping the inhumane practices taking place inside the prisons.
Earlier on Sunday, the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS) confirmed that the General Authority for Civil Affairs informed them of the death of prisoner Mohammad Hussein Mohammad Ghawadra, 63, in Israeli prisons.
In its statement, the PPS noted that his death comes amid an ongoing campaign of incitement led by the Israeli authorities, particularly under the direction of far-right minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who is pushing for a law to execute prisoners and openly boasts about the crimes committed against them. This is taking place as Palestinian detainees face one of the most brutal forms of extermination within Israeli prisons.
The PPS stressed that the killing of Ghawadra is part of a wider pattern of systemic violations targeting prisoners, aiming to slowly kill them and destroy them physically and psychologically.
Ghawadra was arrested on August 6, 2024, and had been held in pretrial detention at the “Janot” prison (formerly Nafha and Ramon).
He was the father of administrative detainee Sami Ghawadra and of freed prisoner Shadi Ghawadra, who was released earlier this year as part of a prisoner exchange deal and exiled to Egypt.
The PPS pointed out that violations escalated following the ceasefire agreement, with testimonies from recently released prisoners providing undeniable evidence of torture and field executions inside prisons, confirmed by the condition of bodies returned following the agreement.
With Ghawadra’s death, the number of known martyrs among the Palestinian prisoners since the beginning of the genocide war has risen to 81, while the crime of enforced disappearance continues to affect dozens more.
The current phase, the PPS said, is the bloodiest in the history of the Palestinian Captive Movement since 1967. The number of martyrs whose identities have been confirmed now stands at 318, while Israel continues to hold 89 bodies, including 78 since the war began.
The PPS stressed that the accelerating rate of prisoner deaths reflects Israel’s ongoing policy of slow execution, with new deaths occurring inside prisons every month.
